Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Instagram fans can now Story and Save all they like from mobile browsers

Hillary K. Grigonis
By

Instagram Stories Mobile Web
Instagram
Instagram Stories are going beyond the app — After launching the ability to see Stories on mobile browsers over the summer, on Thursday, November 17 Instagram announced that users can soon post to their Stories without the app, too. Posting to a Story, as well as saving posts to review later, is coming to Instagram.com on mobile browsers in the next few weeks, the company says.

Stories allows users to post several short video clips of their day, providing friends with a brief visual breakdown of the day’s happenings. The feature, which launched a year ago, was previously only available inside Instagram’s app. Now, the social platform is bringing the feature to the mobile web.

Recommended Videos

Instagram Stories still has more features in the app, but users can log into their account on a mobile browser and see those familiar Stories circles at the top of the screen. While mobile browsers have had access to viewing other Stories for a few weeks now, users can now tap on the camera icon on the top left to add to a Story, too. The mobile browser has similar options to add text, but users will have to use the app to post videos to Stories.

Along with the new option to share to Stories, Instagram is also bringing the option to save posts. Users can also revisit those saved posts on a mobile browser by clicking on the bookmark icon in the upper right corner.

Instagram Stories now has around 300 million people using the feature every day. While the concept was originally a Snapchat option, Instagram’s version quickly gained more users than the original.

Instagram has been steadily improving its mobile site this year, adding the ability to post a photo and use the Explore tab in May. The platform has long stuck to a mobile-first, instant-sharing philosophy, so while some features are available from a desktop web browser, features like the photo upload, and now, adding to Stories, are only available from browsers on a mobile device.

Instagram’s expanded mobile website allows users with slower networks to access the platform’s biggest features, particularly in high-population but low-tech countries such as India and parts of Africa. While viewing posts and Stories and sharing a photo are accessible with the mobile website, features like messaging and adding videos still require the app.

Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, doesn’t have the same mobile-first idea — Facebook began testing Stories on desktop browsers over the summer. While Facebook hasn’t shared recent numbers, the feature is thought to lack Instagram Stories’ popularity.

Updated on November 17 to include the ability to post to Stories from a mobile browser.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary K. Grigonis
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Twitter’s new story-like ‘fleets’ disappear after just 24 hours
twitter 13th birthday changed communication feat

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if it works for one social media company, it might work for another. And another. 

On Wednesday, Twitter launched a new feature called “fleets” in South America, according to The Verge. 

Read more
How to print Instagram photos, from mobile printers to online photo labs
how to use instagram guide 2

Photographs may look great on a digital screen, but there's nothing quite like bringing them to life through the form of a print. Most of our photographic creations sit on Instagram. We take pride in curating our feeds, making them look all fancy for our audience. But what about making them look fancy on our wall? Thankfully several platforms give us the option of printing our favorite photos from Instagram. However, there are a few things you need to know before you go ahead and do so. Here's how to get the best results when printing from Instagram and all the best places where you can make it happen.
What Instagram photos can you print, and how big can you print them?
First, beware that these tools for printing Instagram photos are designed exclusively for printing your own shots. Printing someone else’s photograph that you swipe off of Instagram is photo theft. If you see a photo on Instagram you’d really love on your wall, reach out via a comment or private message to arrange a print with the original photographer. Don’t be that Instagram user that finds a way to beat the system to steal someone else’s work.

Second, Instagram doesn’t save your photograph in all its high-resolution glory. Images are downsized to just 1,080 pixels wide -- that's fine for a small phone screen, but won't hold up for a large print. Instagram photos can still make great prints, but they should be kept under five inches wide -- such as a 5 by 5 for a square shot. If you try to print out an 11 by 14, you’ll end up with a pixelated print. For larger prints, find the original photo and make a print from that -- you'll lose whatever edits you made in Instagram, however, so you may want to edit in a different app first.
How to print Instagram photos from a printer

Read more
Apple removes Like Patrol’s Instagram ‘stalking app’ from the App Store
Instagram

The Like Patrol app that alerts you when your Instagram followers like or comment on a photo has been removed from Apple’s App Store for violating its guidelines. 

Apple's move follows a cease-and-desist letter Instagram sent to Like Patrol in late October regarding the app’s violation of Instagram’s scraping policies, according to CNET. Like Patrol has been criticized as a “stalking app” since it lets its subscribers see every move that the people they follow make. 

Read more